ENG vs IND: Harry Brook targets No. 1 T20I ranking after England seal series win over India

England captain Harry Brook has set his sights on taking his side to the top of the ICC men’s T20I rankings after sealing a series victory over India, saying becoming the world’s No. 1 team is now England’s primary objective.

England’s commanding nine-wicket victory in the fourth T20I in Bristol gave them an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series. A win in the fourth match at Southampton would see England replace India at the top of the ICC men’s T20I rankings.

“We’ve been told if we win the next game, we go to world No.1 and that’s definitely a prize that we’re eyeing up,” Brook said after the Bristol win.

“India are a strong side. They probably haven’t been as good as they have been over the last couple of years, but we’re really happy with the way that we’ve executed our plans.

“To beat India 4-0 would be a pretty special series win. To go No.1 in the world would be even better. That’s our main aim. We want to go out there and try and beat them convincingly again.”

Brook credited England’s ability to adapt quickly to conditions throughout the series, a factor he believes has made the difference against the reigning T20 world champions.

“We’ve got to go to Southampton, try and assess the conditions as well as we can, and that’s something that we’ve done really well in this series so far,” he said.

The Southampton fixture will coincide with England’s FIFA World Cup quarter-final against Norway, with Brook admitting the cricket squad will also have one eye on the football.

“To go world No.1 and England going to the semis, that would be pretty cool,” he said. “We’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on it and watching the game for sure.”

England’s resurgence under Brook has been remarkable. Since he took over the captaincy, they have won 19 of their last 22 completed T20Is, a run that also included a semi-final appearance at this year’s T20 World Cup, where they lost to India.

Brook believes England’s recent performances are the result of steady progress rather than a sudden turnaround.

“The white-ball side’s been on a really good path, if I’m being brutally honest,” he said. “We’ve been playing extremely good cricket. We’ve been adapting to the surfaces and conditions really well.

“We had a good World Cup. We just fell just short of 250 in a chase at the Wankhede, which is incredible.”

While the series win has lifted the mood around English cricket, Brook insisted his team is focused on finishing the job.

“I think it might have changed the mood a little bit, but we’ve still got one more game to play. Hopefully, we can go to world No. 1 and beat a very strong Indian side.”

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